How do we feel about the Kiss mural outside Nice Guy Eddie's?

[EVG photos taken on April 8]

Nice Guy Eddie's made their closure public this week on Facebook. The 16-year-old bar's last day is Sunday.

As Eater reported in April, the CB3/SLA committee OK'd the transfer of assets from the David McWater-owned Nice Guy Eddie's on Avenue A at Houston/East First Street to an entity called Downtown Dining LLC led by Darin Rubell of the Gallery Bar. Plans call for a restaurant serving "American comfort food."

An EV Grieve reader who was at the April meeting noted that Rubell was noncommittal about keeping the Kiss mural on the restaurant's south wall along East First Street. (There was something to do with the size of the new windows for the space or something.) It seems rather unlikely that the mural would remain... As Greg at Eater put it, "That sweet, sweet Kiss mural will probably be the first thing to go."

While I like Kiss (well, mostly) and Chico's work, I don't have strong feelings about the mural ... or the bar... was never a place that I went to very often, if at all in the last 10-plus years. Still, I know people who do like it. (The bar and the mural.) Ditto for the burger on the Avenue A side.

If the mural does go... the entry points into the neighborhood have dramatically changed ... 14th Street and Avenue A is, for now, an empty lot ...

[EVG reader Tom]

Astor Place will be a (the?) Death Star...

And Avenue A and Houston with a new restaurant on the northwest corner and the Union Market on the northeast corner...

'Established food operators' wanted for former Polonia space on First Avenue

Just noting the for rent signs are up at Polonia, the homey Polish restaurant that closed last December here along First Avenue between Seventh Street and Sixth Street.

Not many details on the listing (such as monthly rent):

Neighbors:
Empellon Cocina, Subway, McDonald's, Caracas Arepa Bar, Luke's Lobster Bar, Porchetta NYC, Pylos, Ricky's and Cafe Mogador

Comments:
-- Prime East Village Location
-- Currently vacant
-- Direct deal
-- Seeking established food operators

Looked at who the broker, New Street Realty, has leased to recently... the recent transactions include The Growler Station on West Eighth Street ... a 16 Handles ... the Subway next door to Polonia ... five Hale and Hearty Soup locations... one 7-Eleven ... a Just Salad ... a few bank branches...

Anyone want to go with a Hale & Hearty as the next tenant here then?

Workers just as bored with 7-Eleven as we are

Workers at the incoming 7-Eleven on IHOP Way left the lights on for us...



...and no paper on the windows? Where's the challenge in that?



Anyway, no one was around to ask when the space might be opening here on East 14th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue...

Previously on EV Grieve:
A quick East Village 7-Eleven inventory

7-Eleven to complete suburbification of East 14th Street

7-Eleven's feeble attempt at an anti-blogger shield on the Bowery

You can now rent Bret Easton Ellis' apartment in the American Felt Building

Yesterday afternoon, Foster Kamer at The Observer noted that L.A.-based writer Bret Easton Ellis was renting out his American Felt Building apartment on East 13th Street. (Ellis announced the rental via Twitter.)



Here's the listing via Warburg:

This is your opportunity to rent at the famed American Felt Building, one of the best-known and most coveted addresses in the Union Square vicinity. The area where this apartment is located actually includes eight different neighborhoods, as this former factory building is ideally situated at the crossroads of Gramercy, Union Square, and the East & West Village. . . . The food shopping alone makes the area a destination: the original Greenmarket, Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods are all only minutes away. The apartment features maple floors, double sinks, 14' ceilings, oversized windows, and a washer/dryer. Building amenities include a common garden off the lobby and a roof deck. Topping it off is a private, exclusive, 400 square foot terrace. This is an open loft. There is no separate bedroom - but lots of open space where you can live the life you love.

[How loud can you play the Huey Lewis and The News here?]

Price: $5,000 a month. And you can see it during an Open House Friday evening 6-7 and Sunday afternoon 2:30-3:30. And you never know who you'll bump into.

What's taking over the TenEleven space on Avenue C

On June 5, we reported that TenEleven would be closing at 171 Avenue C at the end of this month.

A reader left us this comment on the post:

"The new bar there will be called Evelyn Drinkery, I believe. The guys are cool and have some cool ideas."

There is a landing page for the bar with an email address ... they also created a Facebook and Twitter account ...

Via Facebook, one of the Evelyn Drinkery proprietors declined to share any information about the new bar at this time. (For instance, we were curious about the new bar name, and if it had anything to do with one of TenEleven's owners, Evelyn McCue.)

However, he did say "I can assure you and your readers that we are all well acquainted with the neighborhood and only plan on beautifying The spot."

According to Facebook, they plan to open in August.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Reader report: TenEleven closing at the end of June

[Image via the Evelyn Drinkery website]

Nice Guy Eddie's closing Sunday

An EVG Facebook friend shared this news with us...



As Eater reported in April, the CB3/SLA committee OK'd the transfer of assets from the David McWater-owned Nice Guy Eddie's on Avenue A at Houston/East First Street to an entity called Downtown Dining LLC led by Darin Rubell of the Gallery Bar. Plans call for a restaurant serving "American comfort food."

Is Ian Schrager going to build a hotel on the Bowery?

Hmm. According to Lois Weiss in the Post today, hotelier Ian Schrager is in contract for a new hotel.

Is the Bowery a possibility? Per the Post:

While he didn’t say where ... Schrager said he likes the Bowery, and that the bar and restaurant action there "bodes well" for hotels and residential.

Meanwhile, thoughtless construction equipment ruins a perfectly good pizza on Avenue A

A reader notes the following this morning in front of (a surprisingly clean-looking) 100 Avenue A...



One of the pieces of equipment the workers are using on the (gas?) main repair on Sixth and A made a special delivery...



Not sure which came first — the pizza or the wheel.

Is it time to leave the East Village?

A reader left this comment on the Starbucks post from yesterday... and I've been thinking about it...

It's a whole new demographic around here at this point. I know because I've talked to some of my neighbors who are recent college grads from places like Wake Forest or Villanova or Bucknell, etc. I've heard it from the horse's mouth — there is a whole culture here of these type of transplants. They really do hang out together at places like "13th step" and they really are clueless about this neighborhood and what it once was. It's a tidal wave, it's an epochal shift. The EV as you knew it is officially over. I hate to be a defeatist but IMO it is time to wave the white flag. I myself am planning to move out within a couple of years and it is the thought of that helps get me through my New York days.

I've heard variations of this sentiment many times — more so in the last few months than in any recent years ... I know people who have left — chased by the luxurification — to find lower rents in the upper reaches of Manhattan or the outer sections of Queens or Brooklyn... and I know people who continue to talk about moving, disgusted by the luxurification ... some people I know who discuss leaving cite as a reason the continued influx of more and more bars (and bargoers), one concept seemingly dumber than the previous one. Some people tell me that they don't fit in any more. Too old. Too weird. Too broke. Time to go.

Understandable.

Are you thinking about moving too? Are you ready to raise the white flag?

In closing, here's some perspective from a New York Times article (excerpted via Ephemeral New York here) titled "The affluent set invades the East Village."

The article is from November 1964.

Bowery Electric's new-look entrance; plus a new live room

We've been watching workers put in a new entrance over at The Bowery Electric...

Before...

[Bobby Williams]

We also recently watched a worker clean up the Bowery Electric's neon sign...

Anyway, here's the entrance now (well, as of Sunday anyway) ...



Aside from a new entryway... the Bowery Electric folks said that they are debuting a new live room tonight (it's at the back of the main bar) ... with a spoken word performance by Brother Mike Cohen...

165 Avenue B back on the market

There's a new broker for 165 Avenue B, the building just north of East 10th Street.... (we looked at it here in February 2011 ...)



Here's the Corcoran listing:

Great live/work 'loft' building for sale on a prime block in the East Village; just steps from Tompkins Square Park. Approximately 5,700 square feet, this six unit apartment building has tremendous upside since the spaces can be used for residential, commercial and retail. Four of the units can be delivered vacant and the remaining two within one year. The building has a commercial overlay which allows the ground floor to be used as retail or commercial space. The five story building is 23'8" wide with two and three bedroom floor through apartments on the top four floors and two commercial units on the ground floor, one with a separate entrance. The lot is 93' deep with a large garden, there is a two story extension on the rear ... 1,865 sq ft of air rights remain. Zoned R7-2 with a C1-5 overlay.

Not sure what the future will hold here... but I did like the last retail tenant, as I've written... Waldorf Hysteria ...



[Waldorf image via]

Your 'Saints of the Lower East Side'

Oops... we're really late with this one...



We received the news release last week... and here it is...

Fourth Arts Block (FABnyc) presents "Saints of the Lower East Side" by artist Tom Sanford, the latest in a series of exhibitions produced through FABnyc's public art program, ArtUp. The outdoor exhibition features seven painted portraits mounted 14 feet above street level on a scaffolding bridge at the 70 East 4th Street Cultural Center. ...

This exhibition is Tom Sanford's first outdoor public art project. The array of large gilded paintings are intended as an homage to cultural icons who lived and worked on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. In the artist words, "These seven individuals [Martin Wong, Joey Ramone, Miguel Piñero, Ellen Stewart, Charlie Parker, Arthur Fellig and Allen Ginsberg], along with hundreds more, make the Lower East Side the crucible of the American avant-garde and a neighborhood that captivates my imagination as a New York artist."

A reception for the artist will be held on June 26th, 2012 at 6pm at FAB Café. ..

.



The art will be up until Sept. 5 or so... Sanford and Graham Preston installed "The Saints" on June 4... Here's one of the photos via Sanford's website...